


and i knew its name

by noirshitsuji



Series: (new york city is) insidious [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste's Mask, Conflict-Avoidant Adrien Agreste, F/M, Gen, Implied/Referenced Animal Attack, Implied/Referenced Injury, Nino Lahiffe Knows, Nino Lahiffe POV, Post-NYC special, Referenced Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Referenced Potential Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug - Freeform, Referenced Potential Adrienette, The Lahiffe Household, The Moon Dance, cat OC - Freeform, character introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:27:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27067867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noirshitsuji/pseuds/noirshitsuji
Summary: Nino is not good with the direct approach, but he does try it once - a week after New York, three minutes after the last lesson of the day ends.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Nino Lahiffe, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Kagami Tsurugi
Series: (new york city is) insidious [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1953754
Comments: 8
Kudos: 40





	and i knew its name

“Bro. The way you look at Marinette.”

Adrien pauses before hitting what Nino assumes to be the send button on a text and looks up, tilting his head, confused smile on his face.

“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean, Nino.”

 _Perfectly polite as always,_ his friend thinks. “ _I do not have a specific way of visually perceiving that girl; she is just my very good_ **_friend_ ** _Marinette. Even if I keep glancing around my shoulder while pretending to be dropping my pen accidentally just to stare at her face with a mix of confused adoration and dumbfounded bewilderment.”_

“Adrien,” Nino says as the other boy starts packing up his books from the desk, “Alya has a video of your moonlight dance, you know.”

Adrien’s hand hovers briefly above his phone again. His thumb moves to quickly tap on the ring on his other finger before he puts the device in his bag, too. “Oh, really? That’s very nice,” he replies, looking up and smiling once more at Nino as brightly as he likely did for every photographer who asked him to.

But he doesn’t ask for a copy. “My man, you two _look_ like a couple in that video. Match made in heaven – if heaven is the moon and there are all the sliding doors to keep you stuck together forever. The sheer _comfort_ that–”

“Nino,” Adrien says, slinging his bag up his shoulder and his smile turns apologetic, then, _and his mother was an actress, wasn’t she? this is why he’d been so easy to direct–_ “Sorry, but I really do need to get to fencing and I still don’t understand what you mean. Marinette is my very good friend; _of course_ I feel comfortable in her presence, and if I look at her in a specific way, it’s no different than the one I look at, say...”

He starts heading for the door as he trails off and Nino follows, intent on hearing his answer, when–

“Ah, Kagami, there you are,” his friend exclaims as the older student approaches them, and Nino can see her normally cold, neutral expression soften and he looks over to Adrien to see his smile even brighter, as if he’s forcing it extra wide for the cameras, and _oh–_

“You said you wanted onigiri in your bento box, right?” she asks him, reaching into her bag and pulling out a box. Adrien glances at Nino and then hugs her in a way that the latter can only describe as _pointedly,_ but what and to whom exactly he is trying to prove the elephant in the room is not obvious to Nino, who sees Kagami melt, as much as he’s ever assumed her to be able to, in Adrien’s arms.

“Right, gotcha,” is the only thing he could think to say. He smiles, too, and waves at both of them. Kagami waves back, a bit awkwardly but still with good intent, with her empty hand. Adrien is still holding her and doesn’t look around. “I’ll be going, then.”

And he leaves them there, but before exiting the courtyard, he looks back up to see them coming down the stairs. Adrien looks up at him, then turns his head slightly sideways while reaching to place his right hand on his neck–

–Nino turns away and speeds up towards home. He has never seen his friend like this before, but he remembers the first day they’d picked up his cat, how happy he’d been when it had seemed to already feel comfortable around him in particular, lie belly-up next to his chair right before dinner as if wishing for a rub–

 _–and for a second the pain is back._

Nino flexes his left hand as he grips the strap of his bad in his right one.

( _Venus cat trap,_ the vet had called it.)

**Author's Note:**

>  _This_ was actually the first part of the series to be drafted, but some delay for want of knowledge of cat behaviour occurred. Shout out to [AlexSeanchai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexSeanchai/pseuds/AlexSeanchai) for telling me I should probably do that; I didn't even know what a [Venus Cat Trap](https://www.tuftandpaw.com/blogs/cat-guides/the-definitive-guide-to-cat-behavior-and-body-language) is before naming this fic, but it all slotted into place even better after I discovered it.
> 
> Tl;dr: never eschew an opportunity to learn something new, kids. (And definitely do not try and run away from your feelings. That _tends_ to have even worse consequences.)
> 
> I'm looking forward to any feedback you have for this. You can check out the ["prequel"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26622208), too, and find me on [Tumblr](https://noirshitsuji.tumblr.com/).


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